Consuming credit.

Abstract

This article provides an editorial introduction to the special issue of Consumption Markets & Culture devoted to the consolidated mass markets and cultures of contemporary consumer credit. It identifies a strange irony that arises from the extant social scientific literatures on consumption and retail finance: for all the analysis that they offer of consumerism and credit, the consumption of consumer credit itself is rarely considered. An overview is provided of how the articles in the special issue intersect with the sparse literature dedicated to consuming credit and personal financial consumption, and collectively signal new directions for study. It is suggested that, when read together, the articles mark out a trajectory for further research into consuming credit which has three principal and related arcs of interest: the marketing and sale of consumer credit; the repositioning of debt as a consumption problem; and the critical capacities of a cultural economy perspective.